This invention relates generally to the observation of a structural feature of an object utilising penetrating radiation such as x-rays. More particularly, but not exclusively, the invention relates to x-ray phase-contrast recordal, e.g. imaging, of internal boundary features.
The present applicant's international patent publication WO95/05725 (PCT/AU94/00480) and provisional patent application PN5811/95 disclose various configurations and conditions suitable for differential phase-contrast imaging using hard x-rays. Other disclosures are to be found in Soviet patent 1402871 and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,694. It is desired that relatively simpler conditions and configurations more closely related, at least in some embodiments, to traditional methods of absorption-contrast radiography, may be utilised for differential phase-contrast imaging with hard x-rays.